Mme Sylvia Leabile is a rare breed hailing from Bendell
village in the Northern Cape Province. She is a powerful business woman who
never allowed her circumstances to dictate her future. She lives a life
upholding values of love, forgiveness,
letting go of past experiences without resentment, confronting what needs to be
confronted, embracing new things, giving people the benefit of doubt, forgiving
wholeheartedly, protecting what she believes in at all cost and understanding
that people can support and at the same time hurt you. She is a survivor- hard-nut to crack. She is
always in charge with a will do it if you won’t do it attitude. She is a
perfectionist of some sort, even though very empowering. She does not take “No”
for an answer.
As a workaholic, she sometimes thinks that everyone must
be a hard worker like her, only to find that it is not always the case and she
becomes disappointed. She usually makes all kinds of outrageous statements that
would get everybody worked up. Some people get upset with the messenger and not
paying attention to the message. She has an “uncompromising approach” and “in
your face” style which is very often misunderstood. She is the Chairperson of
“PAW” Phenomenal African Woman - South Africa and Chairperson of Hebzibah
Cooperative Bank situated at the North West Province. Sylvia is also a founder
of Sylvia Leabile Foundation which focuses on Women, Youth and Community
Development and Empowerment.
She is a Director & Shareholder at Tsela Tshweu Pty)
Ltd which focuses on building value in the investee companies, by providing
Resources, Organizational Development Support, Strategic Business Development
and highly skilled and talented management teams in the continent.
She also runs Sharufa holdings, a company that focuses
on mining and construction.
My Guiding principles in relation to Courage as opposed
to Fear The greatest fear in the world
is of the opinions of others. The moment you are unafraid of the crowd you are
no longer a sheep, you become a lion. A great roar arises in your heart, “the
roar of freedom.” Also, when you are a
person who wants to impact others and make a lasting change in the lives of
people, you cannot afford to live in fear.
You can either be a person who is a coward, afraid,
ready to submit, surrender, a person who has no dignity, no respect for his/her
own being—or you can be fearless. But
then you are going to be a rebel, you cannot avoid that. Either you can be a
man of faith or you are going to be a rebellious spirit.
Leadership
In 1999, she was nominated the "Best Young Women
Entrepreneur" at the National Association for Women in Business (NAWBO)
awards. She is a Motivational speaker, facilitator for Enterprise Development
and Capacity Building.
She is an architect of Youth and Women Empowerment and
Development initiatives. Sylvia believes that each challenge is a lesson for
her and about her. When you are
challenged there is a greater power firmly holding you. You can't live your
life planning how to escape hurt and disappointment but you can choose how to
look at life.
Her promise is to
bring joy, love, peace and happiness for the people around her and she does
that so well. She can be best described
as a “Self- Appointed Leader” and has a firm belief that when you depend on
others to appoint you - you automatically give them power to disappoint you
too.
Leabile has served in a lot of Boards and
Organisations including but not limited to the following:
·
National
Board member for SABCOHA (2012-2014);
·
Deputy Chairperson Human Resource and Skills Development Trust for
John Taolo Gaetsewe
District Municipality, in the Northern Cape (2000-2002);
·
Director & Shareholder of SSIS Pipeline Services (Water Bulk line
condition assessment & leak detection) 2005 - 2016
·
Board Member Access Chapter 2 – Current
Chairperson PAW SA (Phenomenal African Women) an affiliate of Pan African Union
(Current)
·
Chairperson/Co-founder
of Hebzibah Women Corporative Bank (Current)
·
Author: Oh what a life! An
inspirational, motivational book.
Such a
calibre of a leader is rare to find. It is amazing that in all these, she is a
family woman and a great mother of two. She just recently launched a personal
website: “Passion to Empower” focusing
on women entrepreneurs, women in business & youth development.
